“She’s dead.”

“From the poison?”

“What poison? She drove straight into the back of an 18-wheeler that was parked on the side of the highway. She must have been doing at least eighty.”

She felt sad about Silvy. Ginger was probably the only person in the entire world who cared that Silvy was dead. She wished the poor girl could have been helped before she went off the deep end. “Thanks for letting me know, Chief.”

“No problem. And, by the way, we were able to trace Danny’s pistol back to a gun dealer in Longview. It wasn’t Danny’s gun. And now I’m pretty sure I know who killed him.”

“Who?”

“I don’t want to say until after we pick him up. I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks.”

When Ginger walked into her bakery she saw only two customers, sitting at a table. Lacey was behind the counter. Ginger motioned for Lacey to follow her into the kitchen.

“Where have you been this morning?” said Addie.

“I slept in. But then I got busy and figured out who killed Navy.”

“Who?” Lacey and Addie said it in unison.

“Silvy Knox.”

“Who’s that?” said Addie.

“Yeah,” said Lacey, “I don’t know who that is either.”

Ginger looked at Lacey. “You might remember her as Molly Castorside from high school.”

“Oh, yeah—they called her Castor Oil.”

“Right,” said Ginger.

“I never called her that,” said Lacey. “But I wanted to after she tricked Navy into having sex with her.”

“What?” said Addie.

“She fixed herself up real pretty for Navy’s graduation party,” said Ginger. “The kids didn’t even recognize her. And Navy liked her new look so much that he took her up to his bedroom. Where were you that night, Lacey?”

“My stupid, mean parents wouldn’t let me go.”

“Anyway, Molly came up pregnant,” said Ginger.

“You’re kidding?” said Lacey. “I didn’t know about that.”

“Yeah,” said Ginger. “And Navy wouldn’t even talk to her. She ended up losing the baby.”

“So, after all these years she killed him for it?” said Addie.

“I think she would have been okay if her mother hadn’t died. After that she just kind of went over the edge. She moved here and got a job working for Cash Crawley. And she had some kind of relationship with Bull Crawley as well.”

“How did she get the fish oil into the coffee cake?” said Lacey.

“With a syringe,” said Ginger. “She knew about Navy’s allergy and the Epi-Pen. She did it while Navy was delivering my stolen recipe book to Cash Crawley.”

“So, she’s on her way to jail?” said Addie.

“No,” said Ginger. “She’s on her way to the morgue. She drove her truck into the back of a tractor-trailer rig.”

“Well, I hate to say it,” said Lacey, “but it’s what she deserved.”

“She may have already been dead when she crashed,” said Ginger. “Right before she drove away from me, she ate a handful of Castor beans.”

“What’s that?” said Addie.

“They’re seeds that are produced by the Castor plant. But they call them beans, because that’s what they look like. If you squeeze the beans you get Castor oil. It’s used in a lot of different kinds of products.”

“My momma used to give us kids Castor oil when we needed a laxative,” said Addie.

“Yeah,” said Ginger. “That’s one of the uses. But Castor beans also produce something else: ricin.”

“Ricin?” said Addie. “Isn’t that the stuff that terrorists use?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know all this?” said Lacey.

“I looked it up at the library,” said Ginger. “Silvy gave both Cash and Bull a Castor plant. She grew them at the nursery in Gilmer where she had been working. The Crawley brothers didn’t even know what it was or how dangerous it was. They didn’t know how dangerous she was.”

“So, she was planning to kill the Crawley brother too?” said Addie.

“No. She just wanted to let them know that she could have killed them. Although she did spike their coffee with some kind of very strong laxative. They’re not feeling too well at the moment. But they’ll survive.”

“What about Danny?” said Lacey.

“No,” said Ginger, “she didn’t kill him.”

“Who did?” said Addie.

“Well, I—”

Ginger’s phone rang.

“Excuse me. It’s the chief.”

“Hello?…So, you picked him up?…Good…Thanks, Chief.”

“Lacey, you can relax now,” said Ginger. “I thought it was him.”

“Who?” said Lacey.

“Manny Monet,” said Ginger. “The gun you gave me to hold onto—it was not Danny’s gun. It belonged to Manny.”

“I knew Danny wasn’t a killer,” said Lacey.

“Well, I’m afraid he tried to be one,” said Ginger. “The chief thinks that Manny had hired him to shoot Navy, but Danny got cold feet. And then when Navy died, Danny tried to take credit for the murder so he could still get paid. Apparently that’s what got him killed. I’m sorry to have to tell you that, Sweetie.” Ginger hugged Lacey.

Lacey was clearly better off without Navy or Danny in her life. But it might take her a while to fully realize it. In the future, Ginger would try to steer her toward more promising husband material.

**********

Jane poured the box of dominos out on the table. “Well, you’ve had quite a week, Ginger.”

“I can’t believe it’s only been a week,” said Ginger.

“Yeah, talk about life in the fast lane,” said Barb.

“We have our very own Jessica Fletcher,” said Ethel.

“Coreyville is no Cabot Cove, Ethel,” said Barb.

“I don’t know,” said Jane, “we do have a dumb sheriff.”

“Chief of police,” corrected Ginger. “And he’s not dumb. He’s just a little young and bull-headed. But he’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah—as long as you help him out,” said Barb.

“Right,” said Jane.

“No,” said Ginger. “This is it for me. I’m hanging it up. The only reason I got involved this time was because of Lacey.”

“So, what if it’s one of us next time, Ginge?” said Barb. “Suppose Ethel is suspected of robbing a liquor store?”

“Yeah,” said Ethel, “surely you’d come out of retirement to save me.”

“Let’s just try to stay out of trouble,” said Jane. “Ginger has more important things to deal with now.”

“Like what?” said Barb.

“Jane.” Ginger gave her the evil eye.

But Jane couldn’t help herself. “Ginger had a date with Elijah last night.”

“Ooh,” said Ethel.

“Details,” said Barb.

“See what you’ve done,” said Ginger, glaring at Jane.

“Well, that’s what you get for telling just one of us,” said Barb. “And why did you pick Jane instead of me?”

“I didn’t pick her,” said Ginger. “She pried it out of me.”

“So, how was it?” said Ethel.

“Yeah,” said Barb, “did you get any tongue?”

“Barb!” said Ginger.

They laughed at Ginger uncontrollably. Finally, she joined them.

She looked forward to many more Saturday nights with the Domino Girls. And many more kisses from Elijah.

THE END

“Where is she?” said Ginger.

Cash could barely speak. “Who?”

“Silvy.”

He jumped up from his chair and hurried around the desk and out into the hallway, pointing to the back door as he ran into the bathroom. Judging by the sounds coming from the bathroom, he had not quite made it in time.

Ginger rushed out the back door, into the alley. She saw Silvy sitting in a Ford Ranger pickup, starting the engine.

Ginger ran over to the truck.

Silvy rolled down her window and smiled. “Good morning, Ginger. How are you today?”

“I’m fine. But I can’t say the same for Cash or Bull.”

“Yeah. Must be something that’s going around.”

“So, you had nothing to do with it?”

“Well…” Silvy’s smile took on just a hint of evil. “Maybe a little bit. But they had it coming. They used me.”

“So they deserve to die?”

“Die? It’s just a strong laxative. I put it in their coffee. It won’t kill them. But hopefully it will make them wish they were dead.”

“What about Navy? What did you have against him?”

“I didn’t even know Navy.”

“Maybe you didn’t. But Molly Castorside did.”

Silvy’s smile disappeared.

“What did he do to you back in high school, Molly?”

Silvy reached for the gearshift.

“You’re just going to drive away? Come on, Molly, you know you want to get if off your chest.”

Silvy took her hand off the gearshift. “You can’t even imagine.”

“Then tell me,” said Ginger.

“My mom and I moved here the summer before my freshman year. There were only three new kids in high school that year. The other two were boys—basketball players. And they were pretty good. So kids accepted them as though they had lived here all their lives. I wasn’t so lucky.”

“They picked on you?” said Ginger.

“My hair was long and oily, and I had to wear stupid, ugly glasses. And a name like Castorside is just too easy to make fun of. Some guy called me Molly Castor Oil. The nickname stuck. I was suddenly the best known, most hideous girl in the whole high school. Even upper classmen began to recognize me in the hall and call me by name.”

“That’s awful. Kids can be so mean.”

“I started wondering what would happen if had a major makeover. Maybe then I could get rid of the nickname and people would start liking me. My mom took me to the eye doctor and got me some contacts, even though she couldn’t really afford it. Then she got my hair styled and taught me how to put on makeup.”

“Did it work?”

“Yeah—at first. I decided to try my new look at Navy’s graduation party. I wasn’t invited, but I thought if I looked pretty enough they would let me in anyway. I made up a name—I can’t even remember it now. And I couldn’t believe how nice everybody was—especially the guys. Nobody recognized me. And Navy really liked me. He took me up to his bedroom and—”

“—and raped you?”

“No. He didn’t make me do anything. I wanted it. And it was wonderful…being in his arms. He wanted me so badly. It made me feel good. But then later, one of the girls realized it was me and started telling everybody. They laughed at Navy for sleeping with Molly Castor Oil. Then he started making fun of me too. I ran out of there crying.”

Ginger shook her head.

“And that’s not all. Navy wouldn’t answer my calls. And when I went to his house they wouldn’t let me through the gate. He wanted nothing to do with me—even after I found out I was pregnant with his baby.”

“Oh, no.”

“Then I lost the baby. But I told Momma I could not go back to that school. We moved to Gilmer and she got a job working for a florist. I worked there too, part-time.”

“That’s how you knew about Castor plants.”

Silvy hesitated. “Yes.”

“And I guess that’s how you kept them alive in the winter. You had access to a greenhouse.”

“You’ve done your homework.”

“But why did you give Castor plants Cash and Bull? Were you planning to kill them?”

“Not really. But I figured they’d find out how dangerous the plants were after I’d gone, and realize how easily I could have poisoned them. Maybe they’ll think twice about how they treat women in the future.”

“But you did kill Navy.”

“It was easy. I knew about his allergy to shellfish. At his graduation party one of the kids brought crab dip. Navy’s mother freaked out when she thought he’d eaten some of it. She demanded to know where his Epi-Pens were. When he told her he only had one left, and that it was in the car, where he always kept it, she yelled at him for not having any in the house. This is life or death stuff, Navy. And one of these days your stupidity is gonna get you killed, she said.”

“So, you figured he still kept it in the car.”

“Yeah. I did it while he was delivering your recipe book to Cash. Once I had found the Epi-Pen in the glove compartment, all I had to do was inject the fish oil into the coffee cake.”

“And you knew if somebody else ate the cake, it wouldn’t hurt them.”

“Right. The worst thing that could have happened was some old lady at the nursing getting an extra-moist coffee cake.”

“And you figured the police would suspect Cash as the killer once they found out he had hired Navy steal my recipe book.”

“Yeah. But I never thought about Lacey getting the blame. I’ve got nothing against her. She was one of the few kids who didn’t make fun of me.”

“So, you moved here to Coreyville just to get even with Navy,” said Ginger. “Why did you wait all these years?”

“I wasn’t really waiting. I hadn’t planned to do it. But then after my mother died…”

“I’m sorry. What happened to her?”

“She had a brain tumor. She had been having these awful headaches. I finally talked her into going to the doctor. Two weeks later she died.”

“I’m so sorry, Silvy.”

“It’s no excuse for what I’ve done. I know that. But I had to do it.”

“The thing I don’t understand is why you killed Danny.”

“I didn’t kill Danny.” Silvy rolled up her window.

Ginger saw Silvy reach into her pocket and take out a handful of small, multi-colored jelly beans. She threw them into her mouth and began to chew.

Wait—those weren’t jelly bean, thought Ginger.

Silvy drove away.

“No,” yelled Ginger, “don’t do it, Silvy! Come back!” But she knew it was probably already too late.

Silvy drove out of the alley and onto the road.

Ginger took out her cell phone and called the chief.